Tips for when applying and interviewing for a dev job

Recently I had a chance to participate in the hiring process for a Frontend Engineer role and that experience gave me a brand new insight on what makes a good application/resume and some ideas on how to be noticed. I wanted to share some of the thoughts I had and I’d be happy if this helps at least one person land their next dream job so grab a chair!

(Just a note that these are my own views, as another developer and not a hiring manager or recruiter.)

First, If the job you’re applying for asks you to fill out a form, answer the questions being asked and don’t copy and paste something generic you’ve been using for other jobs applications. Most times we can tell you're re-using a piece of text to make it fit into multiple job applications.

If you’re applying for a job that doesn’t ask you to fill out a form and instead asks you to send your resume and cover letter, then make sure you’re sending a resume and cover letter.

Tone

Definitely do a good research on the company you’re applying for. How do they communicate? Is this a big corporation or young small company? Try to match their tone when applying. Not a deal breaker for sure but If you start your application with “dear sir/madam” it gives me the impression you don’t know us well and are not super invested in this job.

When answering questions or writing a cover letter make sure you’re telling a story. Forget the noise. How does your experience and skills can help this company reach their goals based on the job description? Remember there is a human on the other side reading those.

Skills

Listing every single programming language you know under the sun will do nothing to convince them and honestly when I was the one reading I’d lose interest in an application that just lists a bunch of facts without being specific about the question we just asked. If a job is asking for React experience then it’s best to share how you’ve been using React. Maybe you don’t know React but what’s the closest thing to it that you have experience with? Example of what works: Vue, Angular, vanilla JS. What doesn’t work? How you know SQL, Java, C

The reality is that there are many people that know how to code and use the latest technologies so what does make you unique? Maybe it’s how creative you are, maybe you’re a great person to work with. This is the time to be confident about it and share those.

It’s a good idea to go through the whole application and not send anything right away. Sleep on the questions, think of how you can best answer them and don’t rush to send them in one sitting. This is specially important for non-native English speakers. I’ve been speaking English for a long time and sometimes I still need to re-read something I’ve written with fresh eyes to make sure it makes sense.

Final thoughts

And lastly, If you don’t get the job don’t think you’ve failed. Companies, specially smaller ones, open a role for a very specific need and maybe you’re a great candidate but your experience doesn’t match exactly what we’re looking for.

Maybe you were nervous during the interviews and we didn’t get the answers we were looking for. It can be something another candidate said during the interviews that convinced us they were a better fit. Again, we’re all human and we’re just trying to make the best decision with the limited information and time we have.

Keep learning, keep trying and one day that awesome job will be yours!